Walking onto the Loftus Versveld pitch in Pretoria for their Rugby Championship match against the Wallabies from Australia today, Springbok captain, Adriaan Strauss and his men knew they were in for a tough afternoon.

Under their current coach, Allister Coetzee, the Springboks have only won 3 of their 7 test matches and their form has not been great.

But the Loftus ground has been kind to the Boks in the past. They have played 33 test matches, winning 25 of them and have a 5-0 record against the Wallabies during the Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship series.

So when “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” was sung, the crowd rose to the occasion and lifted their voices to inspire the Boks, and their moving rendition even left a smile on Proteas’ fast bowler, Dale Steyn’s face, who was in attendance with his teammates.

When the match got underway, the Boks scored first when flyhalf, Morne Steyn put over a drop goal. The Aussies soon opened their account when inside centre, Bernard Foley levelled the score at 3-3 with a penalty. A few minutes later, the Wallaby attack showed holes in the Boks defence when loosehead prop, Scott Sio crossed the line for the only try of the match, which was then converted by Foley. Wallaby fullback, Israel Folau received a rather harsh yellow card in the 33rd minute to spend the rest of the first half on the bench. Morne Steyn managed to put the Boks in front 12-10 by halftime with three more penalties.

The second half only saw six more points being added, all off the boot of Steyn. He slotted over a penalty in the 75th minute and then sealed the game for the Boks with another drop goal in the 79th minute. The final score was 18-10.

Despite this win giving the Boks a much needed confidence booster, if they don’t patch up the problem areas with haste, they could be facing an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the All Blacks in Durban on Saturday. The Wallabies unravelled themselves during today’s match with knock-ons and handling errors which gave the Boks a few “get out of jail” free cards, especially as the Wallabies spent most of the match in the Boks half, so one can be sure that the All Blacks will not be as kind and any glimpse of holes in our defence, will surely mean points on the board for the champions.